Waiting for a Girl Like You
by Adelaide MacGregor
Summary: [Songfic][Complete]Prologue to my up and coming story, Rememberances of Ausust. Kenshin and Karou meet, they both have special abilities that they really can't explain, that also make them feel like they have known each other forever.
1. Author's Note

**Author's Note:**

This story came as I was starting to write the first chapter of _Remembrances of August_. In this story I explain how Kenshin and Karou meet, the circumstances and why it is so critical in the beginning _Remembrances of August_. I have explained, both Kenshin and Karou's "special abilities". You will have to read to find out what they where, but as I was planning to write a Kenshin /Karou songfic to _Waiting for a Girl like You_ anyways, I decided to do it as a separate short story that happens to be a prologue as well. You can enjoy just this, or stay tuned for the continuation, well in a way, of this story.


	2. The Meeting

**Adelaide:** This story is of my own imagination. No, I do not own Kenshin. No, I do not own the song **_Waiting for a Girl Like You_**. I could wish I was that creative, but I'm not. This is part of the little creativity I have. I'm sorry. And no, this is my standard disclaimer for this story, it will not be changing at all. I don't own anything but the idea and words that form this little story.

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**Chapter One: The Meeting**

_So long, I've been looking too hard, I've been waiting too long  
Sometimes I don't know what I will find, I only know it's a matter of time  
When you love someone, when you love someone  
It feels so right, so warm and true, I need to know if you feel it too_

"Kenshin, I'd like you to meet someone." Sano said, coming up to the red head.

"No tonight Sano. I just want to drink my drink and leave."

"This girl's special. Just come over and say hi." Sano said.

"Why is this girl so much more special than the other girls Sano?" Kenshin said looking at his much taller best friend. Even sitting on the bar stool, Sano was taller than Kenshin. That was with out the added height of Sano's dark spiked hair.

"She has a special ability, sort of like your own. She also has carried on her family's sword technique. The sword that protects." Sano said.

Kenshin looked up at him with violet eyes, a look that with anyone else would be measuring up their strength and ability in just a few seconds time. With Sano he was thinking of the few words that Sano just said about the new girl.

"My ability? Hm, maybe I will talk to her. What is her name?" Kenshin said, turning back to face the bar mirror in front of him. His eyes where violet now, earlier they had been the bright amber color. His hair was pulled up into a pony tail, his trench coat had dirt over the arm and various other places from the fight he had had earlier in the evening on his way to meet Sano here at the bar. He had taken a short cut through the alley and had seen the young girl struggling with the bigger and rougher looking male. He had quickly released the girl from the man and told her to run. She hesitated for only moment, then followed his words and ran in the opposite way out of the alley. He had taken that alley for a reason, a gut feeling. Something a little bit more than a gut feeling though, something in his bones, he could have taken the alley before, or the one after the alley he had taken. For his entire life Kenshin had known how to do things, see or feel things that went unexplained. Until this day, he had never met anyone with any type of ability similar to his own.

"Kenshin. Yo Kenshin, you in there buddy?" Sano asked. He had been trying to get his friend's attention since he asked the girls name, lost in his own thoughts again. Man, Kenshin really could go out like this quickly.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm here."

"The girl's name is Kamiya. Karou Kamiya." Sano said. "Come on, Megumi's sitting with her at one of the booths. Aoshi and Misao are here too." Sano said, starting to leave his friends side. Kenshin took the last swallow of his drink and followed the tall thug through the crowd, easily passing through the people with swiftness and courteousness. Once they passed the bigger crowd, he saw where his friend was leading him, saw a stranger with his other friends.

The stranger wasn't a complete stranger though. The girl sitting between Megumi and Misao had long dark black hair pulled into a pony tail, and even though her bangs covered her eyes, he knew that when she looked up, she would be looking at him with sapphire blue eyes. There was a tear in the sleeve of her blouse and dirt smudged across her jaw line.

She looked up as he and Sano reached the table and sat down. He could tell that she had been crying. Her eyes where bloodshot and red, there was puffiness around them as well, her nose was slightly pink from blowing her nose over and over again. As he sat down he looked at her, and as if she knew what he was asking her, she shook her head yes, and then she spoke. Her voice was shaking, and he could barely hear her over the crowd that was just a short distance away, "Thank you for helping me earlier this evening. My name is Kamiya. Karou Kamiya."

Kenshin looked at her for a moment and then smiling, said, "This one is glad that you are ok Karou-dono."

"When I told Megumi and Misao about the man that saved me, they seemed to know exactly who you where. They then explained to me that you were a student at the University as well, and that they did in fact, know who you where. I wanted to say thank you for saving me. I took that alley, knowing it was a short cut here, where I was meeting Megumi and Misao. I usually would have been able to protect myself, but he came up behind me, just as I was approaching the alley and dragged me into there. I was looking out, but he was so much stronger than I am," Karou broke down into tears once again, remembering the strength of the brute that had captured her, lifting her up, and as she struggled, losing his grip, her running, his catching up to her and pinning her with his body against the brick wall of a building. She had tried to push the man off of her, but with the fear that was gripping her and the smell of alcohol on his breath, she could hardly fight him off. That is when this short red headed man had so simply thrown the man off of her and her behind him to the side.

"I was happy to be there at the right moment. I was actually just about to head back to the campus, would you like to go back to your dorm?"

"You wouldn't mind?" She said, looking up at him

"Of course not. It would my privilege." Kenshin looking down at her with warm violet eyes.

"Thank you very much. I am very tired and worn out." Karou said. As Kenshin slid out of the booth, letting Megumi, then Karou out of the booth, they said their good-byes. Sano looked at Kenshin as he slid in next to Megumi and nodded. He understood why Kenshin had wanted to get out of the bar before, and now he had a reason, and a reason to talk to the girl that was more like him then anyone else knew.

After a few minutes, Kenshin and Karou were back onto the street, and headed back to the campus. They walked in silence for several long moments before Karou broke it.

"I never did get your name. Megumi called you Ken-san while Misao called you Himura. Himura would be your last name?" Karou said, looking up at the quiet man. He wasn't much taller than she was, but he walked with a gracefulness that was beyond just his movements. He seemed always to be aware of what was going on around him. She had noticed in the bar that his hair was a deep red color, in the dark, it reminded her of the color of blood. In the alley, his eyes had looked a bright yellow color, a cold hard amber, while in the bar his eyes where the opposite of what she thought they had been. There, they had been a warm, comforting violet. An unusual eye color, but in a way seemed to fit him.

"Kenshin Himura." Kenshin said turning to the woman walking next to him.

Karou noticed that his eyes were violet, she must have been imagining things in the alleyway earlier. She turned to look forward, not sure what to say. She was still jittery from earlier. But somehow, walking next to Kenshin, she felt safe, protected. She looked down to her hands. There she found what she expected to find, a pair of white kidd gloves that her grandma had bought when she had visited America in the 1950s. On the side of her wrist where small pearl buttons holding the gloves closed.

She felt a warm hand slipping into hers and looked up, Kenshin was looking down at her. "It wasn't your fault. The guy would have attacked any girl. I'm sorry you where the one that had to happen by though."

"It wasn't that. I'm still jittery, yes, but my mind moved to other things." Karou said, giving Kenshin a small smile to reassure him.

"Would you like something hot to drink?" Kenshin asked pointing to a small coffee shop just ahead.

"Thank you, that would be nice." Karou said. When they reached the door, Kenshin open the door with his free hand and followed behind her, never letting go of her hand. They went up to the counter, ordered, and found a open table not to far away. When they were sitting, Kenshin decided to ask the question that had been running through his head since he'd seen her.

"Karou, When Sano came up to me at the bar, he didn't tell me you were the girl I had saved. He told me something else very interesting though." Kenshin stopped when the waitress brought their tea cups to the table. They nodded their thanks, and took sips of their tea, then a longer one. Karou wondering what Sano had said to this man, and Kenshin wondering how he should bring it up.

"Kenshin?" Karou said after a few minutes of silence. "What did Sano say to you?"

"Sano, he...he uh, told me something very interesting. He said that you had an ability very similar to my own ability. A very unusual ability, that like my own, you don't meet someone with everyday."

"My ability? Is that what he called it? I have often thought of it as a curse. Having to wear gloves, because if I don't, who knows what I would see when I touched someone."

"I have often thought the same. A curse. The word fits it very well. But if you don't mind me asking, Karou-dono, what do you see?" Kenshin said, lifting his bowed head, and looking at the girl across from him. Not for the first time this evening, he felt as if he had known her his entire life, longer even.

"If I didn't wear these," Karou said, lifting hands from her lap, and holding them out in front of her, "and I touched someone, I would see things that happened their past. Whether they remember it from this life, or from a different life, a different time, place, society. I see the good moments, and the not so good moments as well. Those are the times," Karou stopped suddenly. She didn't know why she was telling this to Kenshin. She hardly knew the guy. She looked down at her Chai tea, then back up at Kenshin. He gave her a quizzical look. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you that much. You didn't need to know all that."

"Your wrong though. I have a feeling that you feel very much like I feel. You where saying that those where the times..." Kenshin said, prompting her.

"Are you sure you want to hear this?"

"Of course." Kenshin replied, reaching for her hand.

"Those are the times that stick with me the most. Not the happy ones, but the sad and depressing ones." Karou said. She felt so comfortable with Kenshin. It was almost...almost as if, she had know him her entire life, or longer.

They finished their tea, paid and left the coffee shop for the quiet street that led back to the campus. Kenshin was alert as he always was. By now it was second nature.

"Karou, may I ask you something?" Kenshin said after a few minutes.

"Yes?"

"When I asked you to explain you ability, even though I had said something about having my own, you never asked anything about it."

"Oh. Well I don't know. When You said that you probably felt very much like I felt, I got the feeling that you had bad memories of it, that it was something that had brought you pain and sadness in your life. I wanted to know, yes, but you already looked sad enough when we were talking about it, you didn't need me to bring it and make you even more sadder." Karou said.

Kenshin was stunned. He had never met anyone so perceptive, or thoughtful enough to think of him, but offering so much more information on herself first. After a few minutes in silence, and as they were entering the campus of Tokyo University.

"I have found that I don't necessarily see the past, but I have memories that I can not explain. Ones that have not happened to me in this life, but, could have happened in a different one. I have the ability use a sword, a technique, Hiten Mitsurugi, one that I have never trained for, one that has been out of use since the Meiji Era. I am able to perceive things by a feeling, a gut feeling, but something that is more also. I could have turned down any of those alley's tonight. But I turned down the one you were in for a reason, it pulled me in, the feeling I had in my heart, in my gut was overwhelming that I had to go down that alley at that moment. But yet, it is so different from what I just explained. These memories are bloody, they're something that is terrible, they are me, but yet they aren't me, I am someone else in my memories, but yet so much like me...I...I just don't how to explain it." Kenshin said as they walked the streets that led to Karou's dorm.

She was gently guiding him towards her building, just letting him talk as he wanted to. "Kenshin, I would like to help you. Would you mind joining me in Megumi, Misao and I's dorm room?"

"Help me how? I think I'm beyond help." Kenshin said stopping in front of the residents hall building.

"No one is beyound help Kenshin." Karou said.

"I don't know my past, Karou-dono. My past life, whatever it is was very bloody. I have images of blood splattering everywhere, images of me slashing bodies, blood falling with the rain." He said looking into her eyes.

"Kenshin, Please, I want to try something." She said pulling him inside. Once she opened the dorm room door, she led him to the couch and pushed him down until he sat. She went into the kitchen and poured two glasses of water for her and Kenshin and sat down next to him. "Kenshin, I want to look into your past." Karou said slipping the pearl buttons out of their holes and slipping the gloves off each of her hand, placing them on the coffee table in front of them.

Kenshin grabbed her wrists so that she wouldn't be able to touch him. "Karou, I don't want you to do this. I don't know what it is about you, or about me, and maybe I shouldn't be saying this, but since the moment I saw you, sitting there between Megumi and Misao, I have felt like I have known you my entire life. This is not a normal life I lead it. I do not want to hurt you with these thoughts, memories of mine. I don't want you to see these things, no one should see them." Kenshin said, leaving go of Karou's wrists and cupping her cheek in his one hand.

Karou leaned into his hand, "Kenshin, Kenshin, you have so much pain, I see it in your eyes, and hear it in your voice, feel it with every beat of your heart. I'm sorry, but I'm going to do this, no matter what you say. Nothing will persuade me otherwise." Karou said placing her hands in his and linking their fingers, placing her palm against his own.

All of sudden Karou went ramrod straight, throwing her head back and with her eyes wide open.


	3. First Visit

**Adelaide:** This story is of my own imagination. No, I do not own Kenshin. No, I do not own the song **_Waiting for a Girl Like You_**. I could wish I was that creative, but I'm not. This is part of the little creativity I have. I'm sorry. And no, this is my standard disclaimer for this story, it will not be changing at all. I don't own anything but the idea and words that form this little story.

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**Chapter Two:** **First Visit**

_Maybe I'm wrong, won't you tell me if I'm coming on too strong  
This heart of mine has been hurt before, this time I wanna be sure_

_A battlefield, rivers of blood, a man standing on a hill, his hair blowing in the wind, cut loose of its pony tail. Blood splattered on his gi and hakama. Bloody bodies littered the ground around him, limbs torn from their bodies, slashes across their chests, arms and legs. Tears and rips that would have to repaired. Blood that would be easily wiped off of his body, but never so easily wiped off his memory or soul. Never._

_It was raining, pouring as a man went through the streets. He was dressed in traditional swordsman's clothes of a blue gi and white hakama pants. He had a sword tied at his waist and his bright red hair tied into a high pony tail. In one swift movement the sword was out of its sheath and blood was splattering the walls of the alley he had been walking down. The rain mixed with blood as he stood on the opposite side of the alley, twisted, bloodied bodies laying in the puddles behind him. He cleaned his sword, placing it back in its sheath._

_Another night, more blood, screams echoing through the silent night, the moon high and bright in the sky, lighting the manslayers path from death and destruction, to a place of rest. _

_Snow red with blood, a woman's body falling into his arms. A woman he had killed. The young woman lifted the dagger that she held and added a swipe to cross the other one that graced his left cheek. He had killed the woman he had loved. He fell to his knees. The woman he had loved. He fell bloodied, broken over her dying body. _

Karou dropped her head forward, closed her eyes. Kenshin had seen the same memories that Karou had seen. "Karou. Karou, are you okay?" Kenshin asked. He let go of her hands and reached up and cupped her face in his own hands. Her hands slowly fell from his own, resting in her lap. She opened her eyes and he say the hurt and sadness that was there. It deepened the blue to a much warmer color, yet left them so cold that it almost froze his heart. He pulled her to him, gathering her into his arms, wanting to take the hurt away. She buried her face in his chest, when she finally spoke, he could barely hear what she was saying.

"Kenshin, from the moment I met you I felt as if I have known you my entire life."

"Karou?" Kenshin said, looking down at the girl in his arms.

"Those memories, those images, could not have been you. They were of a killer, a man that had no heart. I know you have a heart, you are not a manslayer. Those images where not of you. I know your heart, I see your eyes. They are not ones of a cold blooded killer. They are ones of a kind and gentle soul. That woman that man loved, he didn't kill her, she got in the way, but it was not you. It looks like you, but it isn't. It couldn't be you." Karou said looking into his face again.

"Karou. I..."

"No, it is not you." Karou said leaning up and kissing him gently on the cheek. She pulled away and slipped the gloves back on to her hands, buttoning the delicate pearl buttons.

_I've been waiting for a girl like you to come into my life  
I've been waiting for a girl like you, your loving will survive  
I've been waiting for someone new to make me feel alive  
Yeah, waiting for a girl like you to come into my life _

"Karou." Kenshin said gently. She looked up at him with her wide eyes. The hurt and pain from the images where still there. No matter her faith in that the man in the images were not him, he was certain that he had a bloody past, one that he wanted to protect Karou from. One he needed to protect her from. He slowly leaned forward, giving her time to move away, yet she never did, she moved closer as well. Her lips where soft under his. He pulled her closer and then broke the kiss a few moments later.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean too..." Kenshin started.

"It's alright." Karou said leaning against him, putting her legs over his lap.

"I don't want to hurt you Karou. I never wanted to hurt you." Kenshin said. "Even though we only met tonight..."

"I know. I have the same feeling." Karou interrupted him, linking her hand with his.

"Why, why do we feel as if we've known each other our entire lives?" Kenshin said, looking at their linked hands. See her hand in his, he finally noticed how frail her hands looked. Her long, tapered fingers, engulf by his own hands.

"I don't know Kenshin. Maybe we'll find out someday." Karou said.

They sat like that for a long time. Talking about their families, friends, majors and college life. Megumi and Misao came in to see Karou curled up in Kenshin's lap, asleep, and Kenshin asleep as well, peacefully. Kenshin was still, and even though his eyes where closed, they could tell they were not moving around. Sano and Aoshi came in shortly afterwards, Megumi and Misao placing their fingers on their lips telling the two guys to be quiet. Kenshin, the lightest sleeper any of them had ever seen in their lives, hadn't even woken up when the girls had come in, being loud, or when the guys had come in, still hadn't awaken. For the first time in as long as Kenshin could remember, he had slept through the entire night. No nightmares, not awakening to any little sound in the house. He felt at peace for the first time as well.


	4. Return Visit

**Adelaide:** This story is of my own imagination. No, I do not own Kenshin. No, I do not own the song **_Waiting for a Girl Like You_**. I could wish I was that creative, but I'm not. This is part of the little creativity I have. I'm sorry. And no, this is my standard disclaimer for this story, it will not be changing at all. I don't own anything but the idea and words that form this little story.

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**Chapter Three**:** Return Visit**

_You're so good, when we make love it's understood  
It's more than a touch or a word can say  
Only in dreams could it be this way  
When you love someone, yeah, really love so_meone

The weeks came and went, and soon, before anyone knew it happened, Kenshin and Karou had grown inseparable. One night, Karou approached the subject of having Kenshin letting him see her past again.

"Kenshin, I want to try it again." Karou pleaded, walking down the street back to campus. They had been a swing club with Misao, Megumi, Sano and Aoshi, that evening, the other two couples were a short distance ahead of them on the nearly empty street.

"Karou, I don't want to hurt you again with those memories. You were completely drained that first night. I will not put you through that again. You should not be seeing things like that." Kenshin said bring her hand to his lips.

"I want to help you though Kenshin." Karou said stopping, pulling him up short.

"Lets go back to the room. It's cold out here, and you just getting over that cold, come on." Kenshin said.

"Kenshin, I will do this." Karou said stubbornly.

"I'll think about it."

"Maybe there's a happy part."

"Possibly." Kenshin said, finally catching up with their other four friends.

"We'll see you later. Yeah, g'night!" Kenshin and Karou said. Sano and Aoshi had decided to stay and watch scary movies with Megumi and Misao that night. For Kenshin, all the scary movies he needed where in his head.

"Kenshin, come on, let me try once more." Karou said as he let them into the apartment that he, Sano and Aoshi shared. There was a couch, chair and Tv to the left of the door, a table with chairs around it to the left and beyond that a small kitchen. Past the living room was a hallway that held the three bedrooms and the bathroom. Karou sat down on the couch as Kenshin went into the kitchen. The light was flashing on the answering machine, "Baka deshi," the voice said, Kenshin cringed, recognizing the voice of his adoptive father, Hiko. "Where are you at such a late time? And what is this I hear of a new girlfriend. I heard it from Okina. Call me tomorrow." Hiko had been a friend of his parents, and took him in after their death in an accident when Kenshin was only a small boy. Hiko had taught him the use of a sword, a different technique that Kenshin had known from before, long before, the Hiten Mitsurugi. The next message was from Katsu, a friend of Sano's from his first high school. "Hey pal. I'm coming up there next weekend, maybe we can get together again. Talk to you soon!" Kenshin left the note for Sano to call Katsu and deleted both messages. He grabbed two Coke's out of the fridge and went into the living room and sat next to Karou.

"What did Hiko want?" She asked.

"To know about you." Kenshin said simply handing her the can of pop.

"Me? What did he want to know? You haven't talked to him about me yet?" Karou asked.

"Not much, the last time I talked to him was shortly after we had met, we hadn't started going out yet. If I don't talk to him soon, he'll come down here from Kyoto though. I better call him tomorrow, like he said. If I don't he might do something drastic." Kenshin said, thinking about his father. He wasn't sure when he started thinking of Hiko as his father, had never called him such, but that was who he was to Kenshin.

"Kenshin."

"No. I will not let you do it. Karou do you remember the scenes from last time? You shouldn't have seen that. I won't let you see those again." Kenshin said firmly.

"I don't think I will though."

"What makes you so certain." Kenshin asked, turning his face towards her.

"Your eyes. They don't have the pain in them as much anymore. Your voice doesn't carry the pain it did that first night either. And your heart, I know, I've sat here, or at our place, and it doesn't beat as erratically, it's a peaceful beat to it. It has been for awhile."

Kenshin looked at Karou, deep into her eyes, knowing that she wanted to heal whatever wounds lay deep within him. He looked down at her hands, took one in his own. He thought for a few minutes, and then slowly, unbuttoned both gloves, slid them off her hands, and took both of her hands in his, placing the palms together, like they had that first night.

Memories came again, this time of the same man, but yet these memories Kenshin had never seen. These memories where bright, cheerful. These memories where happy. Karou leaned forward a bit, resting her forehead against Kenshin's. She was smiling, her breathing steady, her body relaxed.

_The same man now sat on a porch to a traditional Japanese home, leaning against a support pole. It was evenin_g,_ the stars slowly starting to come out in the dark midnight blue sky above him. It was spring, just as the Cherry Blossom tree in the front yard was starting to blossom. A shoji door slid quietly opened and a woman with dark black hair in a high pony tail and sapphire blue eyes, stepped out, closing the door just as quietly as she opened it, joining him on the porch. They looked up at the sky for a long time, just simply talking about the stars, the blossoms that were periodically falling in the evening breeze and of what had happened that day._

_The two were again in the evening, this time surrounded by little dots of light. They were standing on the road, surrounded by fireflies. Tears where falling down the woman's face, as the man pulled her into his arms. After a few minutes of the embrace, the man slowly let her go, and continued walking. The girl turned to watch him leave, tears still falling. _

_Another image came as that one faded out. This one was of the young woman sitting next to a futon. On the futon the red haired man laid still, bandages over his chest, arms and neck. She was silently weeping. The man quietly awoke, and seeing the young woman crying, reached out for her hand with his own. She looked up at his face as his hand engulfed her own. "I'll be fine, Karou-dono." The red haired man said faintly, reassuringly, just before slipping back into sleep. _

Karou opened her eyesslowly and looked into Kenshin's deep violet ones. The stayed like that for a few minutes. Eventually, Kenshin pulled Karou into his embrace, leaning back against the arm of the couch.

"Do you think those people where who I thought they were Kenshin?" Karou asked quietly reaching for her gloves so she place them back on her hands.

"Us? In a past life. That would explain quite a bit. Like how we've felt like we've known each other longer than we've been alive." Kenshin answered her equally as quiet.

"It would explain quite a bit. But that man. Was he the same we saw in your other memories? Or was it a different life? I'm not tired, I could try to see more."

"Not tonight Karou." Kenshin said. His thoughts were of Karou as she was in his images. Her elegance and gracefulness, her strength and independence showing through everything, just as she was now.

"That's fine. Lets just stay like this. I don't want to leave." Karou said as she snuggled into his arms more.

Kenshin simply let her adjust her position, closed his eyes, and pulled her closer to him. _I could stay like this forever Karou-dono._ Kenshin thought as he drifted off into sleep.

When Karou awoke the next morning, she had been placed into Kenshin's bed. Her first thought was of shock. Then as the fog of sleep drifted away, she knew nothing had happened, because first of all, she hadn't been drunk and she would have remembered, secondly, she was still in her jeans and t-shirt from the night before, only her shoes and sock, that laid on the floor a short distance from the bed, had been removed. She quietly got up and padded down the hall. The house was quiet, both doors to Sano and Aoshi's rooms where open and inhabited, meaning they had stayed with the girls last night. When she reached the living room she saw the top of a very red head, laying on a pillow, peaking out above a blanket. Kenshin had placed her in his bed, and slept on the couch.

_Now I know it's right, from the moment I wake up till deep in the night  
There's nowhere on earth that I'd rather be than holding you tenderly_

She quietly went over to him and sat on the edge of the couch, gently pushing his bangs away from his eyes. He stirred slightly moving the blanket away and pulling her down in front of him, covering them with the blanket once again. He held her with such tenderness. Her last thought before falling asleep was that she felt warm, safe, protected and cherished by the man holding her.


	5. To Say the Words

**Adelaide:** This story is of my own imagination. No, I do not own Kenshin. No, I do not own the song **_Waiting for a Girl Like You_**. I could wish I was that creative, but I'm not. This is part of the little creativity I have. I'm sorry. And no, this is my standard disclaimer for this story, it will not be changing at all. I don't own anything but the idea and words that form this little story.

* * *

**Chapter Four: To say the words**

_I've been waiting for a girl like you to come into my life  
I've been waiting for a girl like you, your loving will survive  
I've been waiting for someone new to make me feel alive  
Yeah, waiting for a girl like you to come into my life_

_I've been waiting, waiting for you, ooh, I've been waiting  
I've been waiting  
(I've been waiting for a girl like you, I've been waiting)  
Won't you come into my life?_

**Two Months Later...**

"Kenshin!" Karou yelled as she came down the sidewalk toward the library. She was late meeting him. They were going to the library this afternoon to research for their history project. Dr. Saito had paired them together. He said for the laughs of seeing the two not only date, but work together and present in front of the class. They were researching the Shinsengumi. The unit was on the Meiji Era, but as they were a "key part to the Meiji Era" they were going to study the specific group as well. Karou and Kenshin believed it was for Saito's own interest in the group, and having had a great- great- great- grandfather or whatever in the group that made Saito give them the topic.

"Karou-dono." Kenshin said, pulling her into a hug.

"Why do you still call me that now? We have been going out for nearly two months, Kenshin." Karou said, pulling slightly away so she could look at him.

"Habit I suppose. I do not use it all the time. It's like a nickname I suppose." Kenshin said, taking her gloved hand and leading her into the library.

"Why must we work inside? It's so beautiful out! Summer is finally arriving!"

"We have to get this done Karou, you know Saito. I don't know why he dislikes us the most. We're not the only couple in the class. Geez, Yahiko and Tsubume are there as well!" Kenshin said, naming the two freshman that had quickly become friends with the group of Juniors and Sophomores that were fast becoming known as the Kenshin-gumi on campus.

"I don't know either." Karou said as they started searching for the books they needed.

Several hours later both of their brains where fried and they had only gotten part of the work done. As they left the library, Kenshin pulled Karou to the path that led to the park on campus. After several minutes of walking, they found a tree to sit under.

"Karou. You want to know something?" Kenshin said, smiling slightly into her hair.

"I know that this feels lovely."

"I love you. That's what you need to know." Kenshin said.

Karou turned so that she could see Kenshin's face. He looked down at her with a seriousness in his eyes. Tears started to form and she couldn't talk, couldn't cry. She tried to say the words back because her heart was burst with them, but all she could do in reply was throw her arms around his neck and bury her face in his chest.

"Karou? Karou are you okay?" Kenshin asked, sounding worried.

Karou took a deep breath. Laughing she said, "I'm fine Kenshin. You just surprised me."

"Then why the tears?"

"Of happiness. My heart bursts. I just love you so much. My heart burst when you said it." Karou said, wiping her tears and showing a little smile.

"Really?"

"Truly and deeply. With all my heart, body and soul." Karou said, leaning up and kissing him.


End file.
